The French Revolution was an effort to transform France from unequal rule by the monarchy into an ideal republican form of government based on Enlightenment concepts such as natural rights and legal egalitarianism. In his ambitious attempt to do so, he ignored his promise of freedom and eliminated all voices of opposition, arguing that such radical and authoritative actions were necessary to achieve his ideal goal of forming a perfect society. The use of radical means to achieve an ideal end is characteristic of the many totalitarian governments the world has seen since the French Revolution, such as Stalin's Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The leaders of these regimes, in order to realize their vision of an ideal society, employed many radical methods used by French revolutionaries to eliminate dissent, such as the use of terror, propaganda by the government, and anti-democratic rule by of a single party. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayThe French Revolution was greatly inspired by the philosophy of Rousseau, who believed that in order to achieve the general will, the personal needs and desires of citizens must be overlooked and, more importantly, all forms of dissent must be eliminated. This philosophy was fully in force during the Terror during which, by general will, Robespierre took power and started the Terror, ensuring that "every aspect of the citizens' lives was politicized", since they always had to be in agreement with the General terror. Want. To ensure citizens' loyalty to the state, disagreement with the new revolutionary government "appeared to be a crime and a perversion" and was therefore punishable by death. As a result, thousands of citizens in this short period were sentenced to death by guillotine even though the government was suspicious of their dissent despite having no concrete evidence to prove it. Similarly, in both Stalin's Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, those who opposed or criticized the state were seen as its enemies and were punished inhumanely (instead of death, they were often sent to concentration camps). Harsh punishments like this for simple differences of opinion instilled widespread fear among the citizens of France, Russia, and Germany under their respective totalitarian regimes, and because of this fear, overthrowing the regime became virtually impossible. Therefore, similar to the leaders of the French Revolution, such as Maximilien Robespierre, the leaders of modern totalitarian regimes used fear to eliminate dissent. An additional measure used by modern totalitarian governments to prevent dissent was the indoctrination of its citizens about the government's benevolence. through the use of propaganda. Propaganda was not as widespread in France during the revolution as it was in modern totalitarian governments, but it was still present. For example, the Jacobins – formed in the wake of the French Revolution, were the most radical political group during the revolution and played a key role in instituting the Terror – “used propaganda to manipulate the uneducated masses”. A similar pattern has been observed in recent totalitarian governments such as Nazi Germany. Under Hitler's Third Reich, education was a mechanism through which young people could be effectively indoctrinated into racist Nazi ideology. For example, school courses aimed to teach children about the racial superiority of the Aryan race and to “instill anti-Semitism in children through the defense of racial theory.” Likewise, propaganda under the USSR.